In 1987, Apple produced a concept video demonstrating a future computer called the Knowledge Navigator. The tablet-like device offered the user a natural language interface, video conferencing, multi-touch display and access to a global network of information.
While seemingly the product of an overactive imagination, Apple's recent acquisition of Siri brings Apple a lot closer to that vision than ever before. Siri reportedly was born from the CALO artificial intelligence project which sought to fulfill a call for a "a cognitive computer system should be able to learn from its experience, as well as by being advised."
Apple's value in acquiring Siri appears to be focused on this personal assistance technology. Siri describes their technology:
Virtual Personal Assistants (VPAs) represent the next generation interaction paradigm for the Internet. In today's paradigm, we follow links on search results. With a VPA, we interact by having a conversation. We tell the assistant what we want to do, and it applies multiple services and information sources to help accomplish our task. Like a real assistant, a VPA is personal; it uses information about an individual's preferences and interaction history to help solve specific tasks, and it gets better with experience.
In fact, Siri's Chief Technology Officer Tom Gruber uses Apple's Knowledge Navigator video in his keynote and describes it as a "brilliant piece of vision work":
Gruber demos Siri and how it can accomplish tasks using a conversational interface and apply context to provide useful and personalized interactions. He also walks through what's possible today and how close we are getting. Given Apple's acquisition of the company (and presumably Tom Gruber), the talk is of particular relevance to Apple's future plans.
should be noted that the knowledge navigator pre-dated the "world wide web" and most of the internet. Mosaic (first web browser) was released in 1993. so it was a pretty remarkable vision at the time.
Happy New Year 2022! With calendars turning over to the new year, it's a great opportunity to look ahead at expectations for 2022 and there has been no shortage of rumors on that front already.
This week saw rumors about the iPhone 14 Pro, AirPods Pro 2, the next iPhone SE, and more, while we wrapped up 2021 and kicked off 2022 with the first two episodes of our new podcast, The MacRumors...
Saturday January 8, 2022 5:27 am PST by Tim Hardwick
Ever since Apple removed the headphone jack on the iPhone 7 in 2016, rumors have swirled that Apple eventually aims to ditch the Lightning port next for a completely portless design. Indeed, analysts originally predicted that the highest-end iPhone 13 would offer a "completely wireless experience." Of course, that didn't happen, but a portless iPhone 14 in 2022 looks just as unlikely, for the ...
The upcoming high-end iPhone 14 is expected to come with a pill-shaped cutout rather than the notch that's been present on the iPhone in some form since 2017. While we're still months away from the next iPhone, we already have a solid idea of what a pill-shaped cutout would look like in practical use.
A mockup on Twitter by developer Jeff Grossman shows, at least on the Home Screen, what a...
CES 2022 is wrapping up today, and while it was a more muted event because of the ongoing pandemic that saw many exhibitors and attendees cancel, there were still plenty of new product announcements. In our latest YouTube video, we rounded up some of the best Apple-related accessories that we saw this year.
Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos. Garmin Venu 2 Plus...
Today is January 9, which means it's been 15 years since Apple CEO Steve Jobs stood on stage at the Macworld Expo in San Francisco, California and gave the world its first look at the iPhone, a device that would go on to change everything.
The original iPhone was a tiny little thing with a 3.5-inch LCD display, a plain old Home button, a thick chassis, huge bezels, a Samsung processor, and a ...
Apple's first event of 2022 will likely take place in March or April, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman said today in his "Power On" newsletter. Gurman said a new iPhone SE with support for 5G and a faster chip is likely to be among the announcements at the event.
"Apple's first virtual event of 2022 is coming up in just a few short months and is likely to take place in either March or April, I'm...
In January 2020, a man who identified himself as an Apple parts manager informed Japanese auto supplier Sanden that Apple wanted to make electric vehicles, and presented schematics of an electric vehicle and air conditioner parts, according to Nikkei Asia.
Apple Car concept by Vanarama based on patents filed by Apple Sanden is a leading manufacturer of air conditioner parts for vehicles, and...
Friday January 7, 2022 1:59 am PST by Tim Hardwick
A recurring iOS bug that makes Apple's Messages app send read receipts despite the setting being disabled appears to be on the upswing again, based on reports from users running iOS 15.
In iOS, with read receipts enabled (Settings -> Messages -> Send Read Receipts), the "Delivered" text that a person sees under an iMessage they have sent you turns to "Read" when you've viewed it in the...
Wednesday January 5, 2022 11:18 am PST by Joe Rossignol
Apple's first major product announcements of the year often occur in March or April, so there's a reasonable chance that trend will continue in 2022. Ahead, we recap some of Apple's past spring announcements and look ahead to some of the first new Apple products that we might see this year.
Past Spring Announcements
Last year, Apple held an event on April 20 to unveil its AirTag item...
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